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Patent criticality
The application is in the wrong name
Does it matter whether I file personally or through my company?
The applicant is who will own the patent. Getting it wrong affects fee category, chain of title, who can sue, and what an investor sees in diligence - and correcting it later means recorded assignments, fees and awkward explanations.
The choices and their consequences
Individual inventors attract lower official fees, as do startups, small entities and educational institutions - but an individual applicant then has to assign to the company, and that assignment has to be in writing and recorded.
A company is the cleaner position for investment and licensing, but the fee category is higher unless the entity qualifies for a concession, and the entity must have a good title from the inventors.
Joint applicants across institutions create a permanent requirement for agreement. Every future licence, assignment and enforcement decision needs both.
The fee trap
Claiming a concessional fee category and later transferring the application to a party that does not qualify can trigger a requirement to pay the difference. It is not a reason to avoid the concession - it is a reason to plan the transfer rather than discover it.
Sections 6, 68 and 69 of the Patents Act 1970; fee concessions under the First Schedule to the Patents Rules 2003.
Decide the applicant before filing, with the next three years of funding and licensing in mind.
Filing personally to save fees, then never executing an assignment.
Joint applications with a university or a collaborator, with no agreement about who controls prosecution.
For each pending application, name the entity that will need to enforce or license it. If that is not the applicant, there is work to do.
Sources & further reading
- The Patents Act, 1970 (consolidated to 1 August 2024) — Official IP India text
- The Patents Rules, 2003, as amended (e-version updated to 15 March 2024) — Official IP India text
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Before a funding round or an acquisition
IP diligence rarely finds bad patents. It finds missing paperwork - and that is what delays closings and re-prices rounds.
Not sure whether this applies to your invention?
The honest answer usually needs someone to look at your actual disclosure, your timeline and the prior art. That is a conversation, not an article.
Educational guidance, not legal advice. This material is published by Ragulika IP for general education and information. It is not legal advice, it does not create a professional-client relationship, and it is not a substitute for advice on your own facts. Patentability, infringement, prosecution strategy and every other IP outcome turn on the specific facts and on the law and Patent Office practice as they stand at the time you act. Please take professional advice before making a decision, and read the underlying provision or judgment before relying on any point stated here.
Last reviewed by Ragulika IP on 2026-08-23. Indian patent law and Patent Office practice change; check the position before you rely on it.